Agreed, but one has to wonder about the overwhelming success of these very
same films almost everywhere else in the world, even films that had no
boxoffice at home. Is it possible that the desire to believe in a fictional
place called America meets the needs of folks beyond our shores?
Mark
At 10:26 AM 12/9/2002 +1000, you wrote:
>Personally, I think the most interesting Hollywood movies in terms of
>social critique are classy B-graders - The Matrix, Total Recall, &c.
>Possibly Minority Report, which I saw in bits on a 10 inch screen on
>the plane, so can't really comment on. I can't bear Tom Cruise but
>he might have been ok in this one. I think because it's SF they let
>them have a bit of freedom (it's not real, guys, so it's ok).
>
>Maybe you can put kid's movies there too. It's true of kid's
>cartoons. Because they're not "important".
>
>The thing with movies is, you can't forget how deeply controlled the
>film industry is by the producers, who won't risk anything if they
>think it will make the film controversial (look at the deal with The
>Quiet American). It happens everywhere, but even with a relatively
>uncompromising film like Three Kings, which I liked very much, the
>Americans had to be the triumphant good guys in the end, putting a
>bit of goo on the end of a movie which otherwise had none: you can't
>tell me it's not because some producer said, hey guys, this is too
>bleak, we gotta have a happy ending.... and the end of that sentence
>is, you can't have any money to make the movie unless you do what we
>say. The American film industry bears a huge responsibility for the
>illusions of many Americans that nowhere else really exists, in its
>rewriting of history, its dubbing out of accents not American, its
>triumphalism, &c &c &c.
>
>Best
>
>A
>--
>
>
>
>Alison Croggon
>Home page
>http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
>
>Masthead Online
>http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
|